Election seasons are unfortunately filled with much verbiage as candidates tout their own accomplishments and malign their opponents. The current election season in San Bernardino is no exception.

John Valdivia, a candidate for San Bernardino City Council, cites among his community activities service on the Bicentennial Committee and being the vice chairperson of the Human Relations Commission. Both are technically correct but in the interest of “full and open disclosure” the very limited extent of Mr. Valdivia’s service requires clarification.

The Bicentennial Committee, which I chaired, was formed in 2007 to create commemorations of the 200th anniversary of the founding of San Bernardino.

Throughout 2007, 2008 and 2009 extensive planning took place with each member of the committee assuming important tasks. Mr. Valdivia was appointed to the Bicentennial Committee in the spring of 2010 after all of the planning had been done and many of the major events had already taken place.

Since the final meeting of the committee was held in August 2010 Mr. Valdivia only served for four months. His involvement on the committee was extremely limited since he did not participate in any of the planning nor did he attend most of the events. His referring to being a member of the Bicentennial Committee on his campaign website and elsewhere suggests that he was a fully participating member of the committee. That is simply not true.

Mr. Valdivia was appointed to the Human Relations Commission in April 2010 and was elected as vice chairperson in October 2010. Since the commission has only met sporadically and has, regrettably, not engaged in any significant activity over the last year or so, Mr. Valdivia’s involvement has been quite minimal.

Mr. Valdivia’s claims with regard to serving on the Bicentennial Committee and the Human Relations Commission imply that he has been quite active in these roles. That implication is highly exaggerated.